ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Western Cape Province of South Africa has a diverse agricultural production capacity
and this contributes to the sector’s general stability, hence its promotion as an attractive
investment sector. The wine industry, a significant component of the agricultural sector in the
Western Cape, plays a very important role in the economy of the Province and presents
enormous opportunities in terms of agricultural investments in the Province. The South
Africa’s wine industry is renowned for its high quality products. Currently, indirect indicators
such as producer income, the number of new wine cellars, as well as the age composition of
vines in South Africa, are used to estimate investment net flows into the wine industry.
The main objectives of this study are to identify the most common sources of capital in wine
farms and the most common objectives that wine farm owners are trying to achieve in the
Western Cape Province. Another objective is to identify those wine farm and owner
characteristics that affect the performance of wine farms in the Western Cape Province of
South Africa. For ease of analysis, the main problem was divided into three specific
objectives or sub-problems. The study employed a number of methods and techniques in an
effort to obtain relevant and accurate data. The different sources consulted include personal
communications with industry experts, articles published in different academic journals and
books, conference papers, postgraduate students’ theses, and other articles from the internet.
Data analyses relating to the first and second sub-problems were carried out using Excel and
Stata statistical packages and took the form of multiple cross-tabulations. In the third
subproblem i.e., to identify wine farm and owner characteristics that affect the performance
of wine farms in the Western Cape, an interval regression equation was estimated using Stata
statistical software package.